Frailty in Older Patients Referred to Oncology, and Impact of Treatment: Use of a Modified 6 Item Score

Author Info

Bridget Robinson Chris Frampton Claire Whitehead Dean Harris Ruth Gerring

Corresponding Author

Bridget Robinson
Mackenzie Chair of Cancer Medicine, University of Otago Christchurch, and Canterbury Regional Cancer and Haematology Service, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch

A B S T R A C T

Aims: Retrospectively audit the outcome of frail older patients referred to a regional medical oncology service in New Zealand and assess the 8 item G8 frailty score. Methods: For all patients 75 years and older assigned a first assessment at the medical oncology service over 12 months, data on diagnosis and health status was collected, and the G8 score determined. Results: 305 of the 350 given an appointment attended, 52% were male, 53% had metastatic disease, 29% had colorectal cancer. If aged 84+ years, 50% deteriorated or died within 6 months. Age, cancer diagnosis, stage, and higher neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio were associated with poor outcome at 6 months; use of chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, radiation and surgery with better outcome. Data allowed use of 6 items from the G8 score; with 55% classified frail or vulnerable on G6 score. At 6 months 62.7% deemed frail had deteriorated or died, compared with 22.9% of those not frail. Conclusion: In patients with a new cancer diagnosis aged 75 years and older, outcome at 6 months was associated with age, cancer type, stage, treatment and G6 score. The G6 frailty score used age, weight and height (BMI), loss of appetite, decreased mobility, self-declared health status and medication use, and should be tested prospectively.

Article Info

Article Type

Original Article

Publication history

Received: Fri 30, Aug 2019
Accepted: Fri 13, Sep 2019
Published: Fri 20, Sep 2019

Copyright

© 2023 Bridget Robinson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.COR.2019.04.07